Here they are: the most popular and important posts on Patient POV this year:
The Top 10 Reasons Why Warren Buffett’s to Treat Prostate Cancer Bugs Me
This post got me on the radio for the very first time in my life a very short segment on Ira Flatow’s Science Friday. I love radio and hope you support programming like this today and through the year ahead. And yes, I’d love it if you contacted me for paid speaking or writing engagements this year.
MR Imaging, Electronic Test-Ordering Create Waste
Despite rough times economically, we have a love affair with new technologies that are overused proving a colossal waste of money and resource use.
Are Dense Breast, Right-to-Know Laws Helpful?
Legislators just can’t say “no” to this and unless the public can be convinced otherwise, in 2013, we will see more of these laws pass in many more states. Sadly, just as this post went up, Governor Jerry Brown authorized a dense-breast law in California.
Healthcare System Fail: Let’s Get Serious About Disparities
Let’s give more than lip service to healthcare disparities in 2013. This story, IMHO, is emblematic of what happens when many minorities land in the healthcare system. Disparities didn’t end with Rebecca Skloot’s exposure of deficits in informed consent in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. We have to stay on the case.
Seeking a Second, More Specialized Opinion for a Rare Genetic Disease by Ricki Lewis
This is a critically important issue that many people know much about. I am grateful that Ricki Lewis, PhD, author of The Forever Fix: Gene Therapy and the Boy Who Saved It, DNA Science blogger, genetics counselor, dear friend, and so much more, brought this issue up in a guest post. If only we had a more rational healthcare system, so people with rare disorders were routed to the doctors most familiar with these conditions.
Why Sanofi’s Zaltrap Deal Won’t Help Patients (originally published in the Scientific American Guest Blog – thank you @Boraz)
Despite all the rhetoric about value-based healthcare, patients have yet to enter in to getting value-based care in their terms. Let’s stay on this moving forward.
I may be using this format more in 2013: a way to point up trends, some worrisome, some positive. Alert me if you think something is worth ink that I might not see.
Finally, a big thanks to people who have talked to me about these issues and helped me to articulate what matters to patients. Let’s talk more in the new year. And a plug I rarely make: I need more paid work. This blog is a labor of love. It has not monetized. Feel free to contribute via PayPal to keep it going. If you are in a position to bolster the Patient POV, looking for a good writer or speaker, please get in touch at patientpov “at” gmail “dot” com, via twitter to lauranewmanny. Also, follow me on Facebook here.
Happy New Year to All, and to All A Good Night!